The first years of the PhD program is biomedical engineering is heavily invested in course work. To that end, Dr. McCracken minimized clinical contact and successfully completed 16 hours of coursework. In accordance with the program plan for the first year in biomedical engineering, Dr. McCracken has not yet selected a final research topic. However, he is exploring the area of the special instrumentation. In particular, his areas of interest include the development of instruments to non-destructively assess osseointegration in vivo and in situ. As a result, seminars include the percussive and laser methods that would be fundamental to the development of such instrumentation.